A 26-year-old Cavan man, who can't be named to protect the anonymity of the child victims, has been jailed for sexually exploiting a four-year-old girl and raping her older brother.
The man pleaded guilty to the offences at the Central Criminal Court yesterday.
The parents of two small children who were sexually abused by their uncle while he was babysitting them have described the attacks as "a parent's worst nightmare".
The defendant is the half-brother of the children's mother and was 19 when he was left babysitting the children in their home in Co Cavan on a number of occasions during the summer of 2014.
Justice Paul McDermott said the disparity in age, the fact the offending took place in their own home and the fact that he told the victims to keep it a secret were all aggravating factors.
He noted the mitigating factors included the man's genuine expressions of remorse, his early guilty pleas, and the difficulties in his own childhood and his continuing difficulties.
Justice McDermott imposed a sentence of four and a half years, with the last year suspended for three years on condition the defendant not commit any further offences and that he engage with future assessments for sex offender treatment programmes.
He also ordered that he not be in the company of any child, unless another adult was present and that he make no contact with the victims in this case.
Detective Sharon Walsh told the prosecution that in August 2014, the youngest child told her mother she was worried about telling something in case her mother became angry. She then told her that the man had sexually assaulted her.
The boy's mother contacted her father, and he confronted the defendant who said he had watched pornography with the girl.
The child's mother agreed not to go to authorities after the defendant agreed to go to therapy and she ended his babysitting access.
In 2018, the woman's son was aged 11 when he told his mother that his uncle had also sexually assaulted him four years earlier.
He said his uncle told him to get into his bed, and then orally raped him.
Gardaí were called in and child specialist interviewers spoke to both children, with the younger child telling gardaí that her uncle got her to touch his penis and told her to keep it a secret.
In a victim impact report, the older child said it took him a long time to move on from the attack but that he was in a much better place now.
